Britain's Got Talent boss Simon Cowell has said the show's royal seal of approval is what attracts so many overseas acts to audition.

C ontestants from as far afield as France, Greece, the United States and Ukraine auditioned for this year's series and the winner will appear at the Royal Variety Show.

Simon said: "I think its one of the reasons why we get so many people from around the world entering the show, because it is a huge deal for them to perform in front of the Royal Family."

Attraction, a shadow theatre group from Hungary, won the show last year but Simon said he expected "someone British" to win this year.

The music mogul, whose son Eric was born on Valentine's Day, joked that sharing the judging panel with David Walliams had helped prepare him for fatherhood.

He said: "I had a baby before I had a baby, working with David."

David joined in the joke telling reporters he had fallen out with Simon, saying: " What happened was he got very cocky when we were doing the auditions because he'd made a woman pregnant. I don't know if you heard about it, he kept it all very low key. He was really cocky throughout the whole thing and quite insufferable."

Fellow judge Amanda Holden said she got "quite cross" when the pair's "banter" ended up with Walliams throwing a pen at Cowell.

She said: "There was an incident this year where David nearly blinded Simon. He threw a pen at Simon and he was quite cross and I was quite cross because I was right there.

"They were having a banter about boys' toys or however big their cars are compared to their other cars, and then suddenly this Biro went flying and it hit Simon on the eye, oh, and it wasn't funny.

"Simon said 'This is your nasty side, David, you tried to blind me'. He actually said that he wanted it out there, so I'm putting it out there."